Politburo approves five-year anti-graft campaign

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The Politburo called for better efforts in the fight against corruption as its top decision-making body approved a five-year anti-graft programme.

The Politburo called for redoubled efforts to achieve a clean government at a meeting chaired by President Hu Jintao that approved the plan to prevent and punish corruption, a statement on the government's website said yesterday.

Describing the anti-graft campaign as a long-term, complicated and difficult mission, the Politburo said the Communist Party was determined to build a system to curb and prevent graft, Xinhua said.

The meeting came just two weeks after a court jailed Shanghai party boss Chen Liangyu for 18 years on corruption charges, the culmination of one of the highest-profile scandals in recent Chinese history.

Chen was found guilty of accepting bribes, abusing his power and neglecting his duties while serving as Shanghai party secretary. He did not appeal against his sentence after becoming the most senior official jailed for graft in a decade.

The party has said fighting corruption is critical to its survival.

The Politburo also discussed a temporary regulation covering the tenure system for delegates of party congresses, which aims to expand intra-party democracy.

'The meeting emphasises the need to build and perfect a system that enables party delegates to perform their duties, guarantees their rights, and allows them to fully play their role at various party congresses,' said the website statement.

In a major policy speech at the Communist Party Congress last October, Mr Hu said the party needed to restructure the party institutional system to boost delegates' power in supervising committees.